It's here - a web page about a car
so rare that hardly anyone knows anything about it! This site will
be an information source for owners, former owners, and fans of the
post-war Frazer Nash sports cars - perhaps details of the famous
"chain-gang" Frazer Nash model built before WWII will be added
later. Of course, you can't really understand the Frazer Nash mystique
without knowing the history of the car and its builders.

Frazer Nash History in a
Nutshell

Archibald Frazer-Nash (Archie's name
is always with a hyphen after 1938) started building GN cars in 1910 with
his friend Ron Godfrey. These were chain-driven "cyclecars"
and stayed in production until 1922. Godfrey went off to other
enterprises, later becoming the "G" part of the H.R.G. sports
cars.

In 1924, Archie began production of
a "proper" sports car, the chain-driven Frazer Nash (the car
name is never used with a hyphen). These were light, efficient cars that
had a very good record of successes in trials, rallies and races. A
downturn in the business in 1928 coincided with a serious bout of
nephritis for Archie (he later recovered and started an engineering firm
which exists to this day, Frazer-Nash Limited) and the Frazer Nash Company
was sold to H.J. Aldington ("Aldy"). Aldy's brothers
Donald and Bill joined him in the business and about 360 chain-drive
Frazer Nash cars were built, in many models, by AFN Limited (AFN, A.F.N.,
Ltd.) until production ceased in 1939.

While racing and touring in Europe
in 1934, Aldy recognized the merit of BMW's sport/touring car, the 315
Model. AFN then became the importer of BMW's to England, rebadging
these cars as the "Frazer Nash-BMW". The BMW Model 328
later became well known for its advanced design and performance after its
introduction in 1936. Three Model 328s with special aerodynamic
aluminum bodies, competed in the 1940 Mille Miglia very successfully, in
spite of their relatively small 2 liter engines.

Immediately after the end of WWII,
Aldy returned to Munich while still on active duty and rescued one of the
factory-team BMW "Mille Miglia" sports-racing cars, bringing it
to England under the guise of his personal 328, which had been left at the
factory before the beginning of the war. This same car quickly
assumed a third identity as the new 1946 Frazer Nash "Grand
Prix" model.

Aldy then managed to bring the 328
designer, Fritz Fiedler, to England, where he updated the 328 design for
intended production by both the Bristol Aeroplane Company and Frazer
Nash. A plan to directly share production didn't work out, but
Bristol tooled up for the production of the BMW-design engine, now the
"Bristol", for use in their newly designed touring
models. Bristol intended to diversify from airplane
manufacturing. Bristol also agreed to supply AFN with engines and
other mechanical parts for their planned line of sports cars, which was
based on an update of the BMW 328 Mille Miglia chassis.

Bristol
Cars Ltd. produces very highly regarded sports touring cars to this
day. Since 1961, Bristol cars have used a Chrysler sourced V-8 from
Canada (318-400 cu. in.) and TorqueFlite transmissions. The Bristol
Owners' Club actively
supports all these cars.

The Cars and Models

AFN Limited produced approximately
85 cars after WWII. Rebodies and re-use of some chassis makes an
exact count difficult. The models were:

The most easily identifiable and
recognizable post-war Frazer Nash is the "classic" cycle-fendered
Le Mans Replica. 37 of these models were built, most of them the Mk
1 series. These cars had great success in races and rallies in much
greater proportion than their production numbers would suggest. A third
place finish in the 1949 24 Hours of Le Mans caused the renaming of this
model from "High Speed" to "Le Mans Replica" late in
that year.

This car was originally owned by Bob
Gerard and raced very successfully in England for many years before being
brought to the United States.

A Le Mans Replica won the first 12
Hours of Sebring in 1952
driven by Larry Kulok and Harry Gray (s/n 421 100 160). A Le Mans
Replica also won the Targa Florio in 1951 with Franco Cortese as the
driver (s/n 421 100 109).

"Critics
acclaimed this curvaceous little number as one of the world's finest
looking sports cars." ("Frazer-Nash and the Brothers Aldington",
Road & Track, January 1965) It seems that another English
manufacturer agreed, as the later MGA borrowed some of this design!

Originally called the "Fast
Tourer", this model quickly assumed the Mille Miglia name after good
finishes by Le Mans Replica models in the Mille Miglia race in 1950.
Not much logic, but good publicity! Eleven of these models were
built, the last few using the revised parallel-tube chassis (Mk 2).
The body is aluminum over a superstructure of light tubing (the same as
the "Superleggera" technique of Touring), but otherwise the
mechanical specifications are the same as the Le Mans Replica.

The factory weight is listed as 1680
lbs., which is 280 lbs. heavier than the Le Mans Replica. Although
this was also a "series" production model, each Frazer Nash car
is unique. Some Mille Miglia models had the traditional vertical
Frazer Nash grill (shown above) and some had a horizontal grill with bars.
Nearly all Frazer Nash models are true dual purpose touring and
racing cars. Although most Mille Miglias are fully equipped
for touring, with a trunk and divided bench seating, at least one was perhaps
more oriented towards racing, with no trunk, no provision for a spare
tire, and true bucket seats.

This is Frank
Twaits driving his Mille Miglia (s/n 421/100/163) in the hairpin at Lime
Rock Park, circa 1957. Frank owned this car until his passing in
2004.

I've long owned a 1952 Mille Miglia,
discovered in Honolulu and restored at Leitch Motorsport, Invercargill,
New Zealand. It was completed in February, 2005. This is the Mille Miglia exhibited at the 1952
Turin Motor Show (s/n 421 100 168). It is currently in the
WOW-Classic Car Museum, Nelson, New Zealand (photo below)

When
racing regulations outlawed cycle-fendered cars from the sport car
classes, AFN produced an envelope body much simpler in design than the
Mille Miglia. The Targa Florio, an open roadster, has a
vertical grill like the Le Mans Replica and Mille Miglia.

These photos, from the AFN archives
courtesy of Jim Trigwell, show Targa Florio, s/n 421 200 169, FNS 1/41,
which was finished at the factory in December 1952. The original color was
blue and the registration was YMD 790. The distinguished owner shown in
both pictures is Errol Flynn. (Mr. Flynn is in costume for the movie
"The Master of Ballantrae".
He is pictured below with his wife, Patrice Wymore Flynn.)

This was the first production Series
200 chassis. It was delivered to Elstree Film Studios. The current
location is unknown and the car has been rumored to be in either the USA
or Italy. This was the car built immediately after the Mille Miglia which
I own - mine is the last "first" series chassis. The Series 200
chassis uses simple parallel main tubes rather than the more complex 100
series. Debate continues on the merits of each.

Targa Florio S/N
421/200/185 under construction at AFN in 1953.
Photo courtesy of Doug Reardon-Smith, the original owner!

Owner Jonathan
Procter wrote about this one-only the Austin-engined Targa Florio
421/200/173: "We have recently re-fitted the 2.6 litre
engine to the Targa and I think that the car is likely to prove itself to
be the fastest post war Nash. The engine has been professionally
built to fast road/race specification and the power is phenomenal."

Le Mans Coupe

Although the Le Mans Coupe was contemporaneous with the Targa Florio,
it is more than a Targa Florio with a roof and a horizontal grill
opening. Rather this design includes curves which hint at the future
Sebring model. 15 Targa Florios and 9 Le Mans Coupes were
built. Three of the Le Mans Coupes actually ran at Le Mans and
one of these cars is now located in California.

A very nice photo of a Le Mans coupe
at a 1998 concours of the Bristol Owners Club was sent to me by Bob
Charlton, the Registrar of the BOC.

This is s/n 421 200 202, which is a
car built in late 1954. According to a later report on this concours,
it was the first place finisher in its class!

Another Le Mans Coupe, s/n 421 200
196, located in the U.S. was featured in Automobile Quarterly, Volume 29,
No. 4. This car was damaged in a vintage racing accident in 1996 and it
has been restored by a new owner. It participated in the 1999
Colorado Grand.

Sebring

The stylish Sebring was the last of
the Bristol-engined post-war models. Only three were built.
"Classic and Sportscar" magazine did a comparison test between a
Sebring and an AC Bristol in their August 1996 issue. This test car is
pictured below.

The photo above was taken by Jim
Trigwell at Silverstone in 1997. It is a Sebring built in October 1954 and
raced at Le Mans in 1955 (s/n 421 200 207, engine BS4/407). The original
color was crimson before the 1954 Earls Court show, repainted green before
sale. After this picture was taken, this car was sold and is now in the
USA. Note the other Frazer Nash's in the background!

The last two cars built by AFN, the
Continental, had a BMW V-8 engine and were closed touring cars. A
few other models were built in small numbers or one-offs. For
example, the Cabriolet was a single car
- a Bristol-engined, 4 seat drophead, styled by Fritz Fiedler.

The Cabriolet

One
Frazer Nash was built on a DKW chassis!

Frazer Nash - DKW.
Photo from Ken Hawes

Special
Italian Coachwork

The Frazer Nash shown left was originally thought to be a special body
by Rocco Motto. However Tony Adriaensens reported that while doing a
complete history on the Fiat 8V for a comprehensive book, he came across a
reference to this Frazer Nash with Italian coachwork. He said
it definitely looked like a factory 8V body and he quoted the following
from Denis Jenkinson's book:

"There were three more closed Frazer Nash cars built outside the
factory, two in Italy and one in England. The Le Mans Replica (s/n 421
100 112) exhibited at the Turin Motor Show in 1950 was re-bodied by the
firm of Rocco Motto with an aluminum coupe body and Lurani's Targa
Florio winning car (421 100 109) was subsequently fitted with a steel
body from an 8V Fiat."

Tony wrote that the car at left is the ex-Lurani car and not the Motto
car. He also found the following information in reference to the
license plate number on this car:

This, therefore, is the Frazer Nash that won the Targa Florio in
1951. Jim Trigwell notes a Motor magazine photo of this car (April
1, 1953) which states "...of Fiat design executed by Riva... in
bottle green with red leather upholstery." Jim also says the
June 3, 1953 issue of Motor has a picture of this car's interior.

Peter Marshall, the director of the Alfa Romeo 1900 Register in Great
Britain, sent the copy of the picture shown above as it appeared in an
Italian magazine. He wrote that the magazine had no more to say than
the caption which appears in the copy. He also wrote that John de
Boer (Walnut Creek, CA) lists the car shown in this picture as having been
part of the Italian racing team Scuderia Ambrosiana and under that
sponsorship the car raced in the Tour de France, 1953. This racing
record does not appear in the archive reports.

Another report on this car appeared in the SCCA National Newsletter,
May 31, 1953:

As quoted above from Mr. Jenkinson's Book, a Le Mans Replica chassis,
s/n 421 100 112, was sent to Italy where it received a special aluminum
body by Rocco Motto. However, the A.F.N. archive summary on this car
states:

The "Fiat 8V type" part may not be quite correct. The
archives also report that this was a show car at Turin in
1950. This car was later rebodied with a Le Mans Replica type
body and is now in New Zealand.

The firm of Rocco Motto is not very well known today. Information
on these Italian-bodied cars is being checked with the archives and any
inconsistency in the records, elsewhere on this web site, will be
corrected as soon as possible!

Sources and Bibliography

On another page of this site is a
detailed reference to articles and books on the Frazer Nash and Archie
Frazer-Nash. (see the Frazer
Nash Bibliography) To learn
more about the Frazer Nash, you should consult the primary reference books
for the Frazer Nash cars. These are:

Over the years I've owned my car,
I've corresponded with AFN Limited, the Historic Sports Car Club, the
Bristol Owners' Club and the TT Workshops. Also with personalities
associated with the Frazer Nash - Denis Jenkinson, Betty Haig, Nelson
Ledger, and others. Using an old AFN factory production list and
other lists of the post-war cars, we've created a database of model,
serial number, location and other miscellaneous data.

This site for the Frazer Nash
started in September, 1997 and is updated regularly, so keep checking
back here for new data and pictures! Comments, corrections and
contributions of material, especially bibliographic sources and
pictures, are gladly welcomed!